I remember going to the theater to see this, and when you bought your ticket, they handed you a "cheat sheet" of definitions unique to the story. I had read the book, so I already knew what "Bene Gesserit" meant; however my friends who had not heard of Frank Herbert were pretty lost. A lot of people were expecting Star Wars and DUNE 1984 fell short from two major aspects: 1)explanation and development of the numerous complicated plot points, and, 2)the dinky early 80's special effects. Star Wars Industrial Light and Magic were literally light years ahead of what Dune presented (basically lot of miniatures that looked like, well, miniatures.)
Rather than comparing Dune with Star Wars, a more valid comparison is Lord of Rings with it's themes of religion, politics, and warfare/ competition of various subcultures including alien species like Elves, Dwarves. Orcs, etc. Peter Jackson did a marvelous job of setting up a similarly complicated story and cutting things that were not essential to the primary plot. As an example, I would have loved to see Tom Bombadill in the movie, but I also understand that you can't get people to go to three 6 hour movies. So Lynch leaves holes in the story and hands out a cheat sheet instead- not real effective and the box office reflected that...
Just FYI, I gave Lynch 6 stars for having the guts to try it. Watching a Guild Navigator fold space by shooting spice gas out of his butt is not something you get to see everyday-
Looking forward to the 2021 version.
Rather than comparing Dune with Star Wars, a more valid comparison is Lord of Rings with it's themes of religion, politics, and warfare/ competition of various subcultures including alien species like Elves, Dwarves. Orcs, etc. Peter Jackson did a marvelous job of setting up a similarly complicated story and cutting things that were not essential to the primary plot. As an example, I would have loved to see Tom Bombadill in the movie, but I also understand that you can't get people to go to three 6 hour movies. So Lynch leaves holes in the story and hands out a cheat sheet instead- not real effective and the box office reflected that...
Just FYI, I gave Lynch 6 stars for having the guts to try it. Watching a Guild Navigator fold space by shooting spice gas out of his butt is not something you get to see everyday-
Looking forward to the 2021 version.